In 1969 a
venerable sandstone farmhouse on the near west side
was put up for sale. A large corporation made an
offer on the property, contingent on the demolition
of the house. When a small group of citizens
expressed concern for the fate of the house, the
realtor offered to sell the house to them if they
could meet the corporate buyer's price of about
$100,000. Despite a valiant effort, the group raised
only a fraction of the purchase price and on a cold
Saturday morning in 1970 the house was torn down. A
few months later, it was replaced by a Burger King.

It was
the loss of this beautiful and historic building
that prompted the establishment of the Madison
Landmarks Commission. The Landmarks Commission
ordinance, spearheaded by Mayor William Dyke and
passed in 1971, set out the policies and procedures
to designated historic buildings as landmarks. The
Landmarks Commission was charged with approving
exterior alterations of landmarks and was given the
authority to delay demolition of an historic
building for up to one year. The ordinance also gave
the Common Council the authority to designate
significant areas as historic districts, which would
then be subject to the same reviews as landmarks.
Since then, the ordinance has been refined from time
to time. One of the most significant changes
occurred in 1980 when the Common Council gave the
Landmarks Commission the power to deny demolitions.
In 1997 the Common Council decided that it would be
the body to designate landmarks.

As of
early 2004, the Landmarks Commission and the Common
Council have designated over 160 buildings and sites
as Madison Landmarks. Five areas have been
designated as historic districts: Mansion Hill,
Third Lake Ridge, University Heights, Marquette
Bungalows and First Settlement.

Please
note that there are two types of historic districts
in Madison -- the local districts discussed here and
the National Register districts discussed elsewhere
on this site. Although some local districts are
also listed in the National Register, the
eligibility requirements of the two programs are not
the same and there are some differences in
boundaries.

Mansion
Hill is the residential neighborhood north of the
Square in downtown Madison. Its heart is the corner
of Gilman and Pinckney Streets, where four Victorian
mansions evoke an aura of yesteryear. In the 19th
century, Mansion Hill was one of Madison's two most
prestigious neighborhoods (the other, along East and
West Wilson Street, has been mostly obliterated by
time). Mansion Hill contains the greatest
concentration of intact Victorian houses remaining
in Madison, many of which were the homes of
Madison's pioneer movers-and-shakers.

In the
1950s, '60s and '70s several of the finest old
houses in Mansion Hill were demolished to make way
for anonymous apartment buildings and two large
insurance companies. Fearful of further erosion of
the residential character of this historic
neighborhood, residents petitioned the City to
designate Mansion Hill as an historic district. The
Common Council complied and Mansion Hill became
Madison's first historic district in 1976.

The Third
Lake Ridge historic district encompasses the oldest
sections of the Marquette neighborhood. It extends
roughly from Blair Street to the Yahara River and
from Williamson Street to Lake Monona. It is an area
noted for its variety of building types, including
churches, a tobacco warehouse, corner groceries,
tiny cottages, imposing mansions and a railroad
depot. It was a place where a diversity of people -
Germans, Norwegians, and Yankees - lived, worked and
shopped. The historic district designation came
about as part of a multi-faceted revitalization
campaign undertaken by the Marquette Neighborhood
Association, which included such things as
beautification, economic development, zoning studies
and traffic redirection. The Third Lake Ridge was
designated Madison's second historic district in
1979.

One of
Madison's first suburbs, University Heights was
platted in 1893. Located close to the University,
its curvilinear streets and beautiful vistas
attracted families of university professors and
other business people. Some of Madison's most
architecturally significant Queen Anne, prairie
style and period revival houses were built here.
Madison's finest architects, as well as
nationally-known architects Keck and Keck, George W.
Maher, Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright,
designed residences in the Heights.

The
Common Council designated University Heights as
Madison's third historic district in 1985 at the
request of neighborhood residents.

The
Marquette Bungalows is a cohesive grouping of
bungalow houses on two blocks just south of the
O'Keefe/Marquette School complex. The boundaries
are Spaight Street on the north and Rutledge Street
on the south, S. Dickinson Street on the west and
S. Thornton Avenue on the east. In 1924 the Karrels
Realty and Building Development Company platted the
blocks as the Soelch's Subdivision. In that year,
they built five homes on the lots and continued to
build several houses each year until 1930, when the
last of the 47 houses was completed. The bungalows
share similar sizes and shapes, with a myriad of
different details to distinguish each house.
Although the houses were not large, the quality of
construction and detailing were high; many of the
houses had wood floors, fine woodwork, built-in
cabinetry and leaded glass windows. At the request
of neighborhood residents, the Marquette Bungalows
were designated as an historic district in 1993.

The First
Settlement neighborhood just southeast of the square
was the home of Madison's first residential
settlement. In 1837 Eben and Rosalie Peck built a
boarding house on South Butler Street to house
workers who would build the first state capitol
here. Their log cabin was the first occupied
residence in Madison. As the nineteenth century
progressed, more modest frame houses were built in
the area, with finer brick residences sprinkled
throughout. The neighborhood remained fairly
stable until after World War II when development of
the downtown began to encroach on the area. The
construction of the GEF buildings for state
government severely impinged on the desirability of
the area, which was marked in city plans of the
1960s and 1970s for complete redevelopment. In the
late 1970s, though, pioneer downtowners began to
move back to the area and restore the simple houses
of a bygone era. In 2002 residents succeeded in
having the Common Council designate the area as
Madison's fifth historic district.

CONTACT:City
of Madison
Department of Planning
& Community &
Economic Development
608-266-4635